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April 01, 2006
Never date anything April 1; never rely on anything dated April 1.
Which can be "Rule 13", a new client service rule. This causes obvious problems because of today's date. While you are thinking about this (which should not be for very long), note that A Fool in the Forest today has a special prequel to his Blawg Review #51.
J. Daniel Hull
Posted by JD Hull at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2006
Building a Great Culture Is An Inside Job.
Michelle Golden and Allison Shields each have an important post about this. If you are selling your services firm as happy, fun, competent and collaborative professionals, it's got to be real. Ironically, it takes discipline and hard work to get that look and feel and to keep it. Great "cultures" start with great internal communications--both about what is happening in your firm and, in my view, what is happening on a particular project for a client as well. (See Rule 11 re: co-workers, too.) Do read Michelle and Allison's posts. They are worth saving and reading again.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2006
Rule 12: Have Fun.
Rule 12 (of 12): Have Fun.
See Rules 1-6 here and at these links 7,8, 9, 10 and 11.
If you are not having fun, you are doing something wrong. Period.
Any questions?
While you are thinking, a confession: I loved college, and the liberal arts I studied there, because I am in love with ideas. Law school, however, was a different story. It came at me so fast I couldn't see any grand design, purpose or poetry. Except for the companionship of some truly unique and innovative classmates and profs, a girl from Shaker Heights named Amy, the drinking beer part, my administrative law and trade regs courses, some good part-time jobs, and somehow making Law Review, I hated law school with Olympian passions. It was stale and uncreative.
I even quit--twice, for a week each time. I told anyone who would tolerate me for the entire 2 years and eight months and 3 days that I was an "artist" of some sort, imprisoned and daily being abused by talented but sadistic academics who were paid, and paid well, to abuse me. I envied my college friends at J-school at Columbia, in the Peace Corps, traveling in Europe or in Alaska or Florence writing unpublished novels. I felt stagnant. And of course by the time I graduated at the age of 25, I was unhappy, out of shape, addicted to coffee, cigarettes, Hunter Thompson, Henry Miller and all the usual excesses of my generation--in short, a world-class ass.
So I moved to my birthplace Washington, D.C., where I would fit in. Sort of. I was so sure I would hate practicing law as much as law school that I deferred practicing law for nearly 3 years--in the form of being a hard-working, entertaining but equally difficult and troubled Legislative Assistant on Capitol Hill. There I was once served with a small claims complaint for "back-rent" by an angry DC live-in ex-girlfriend in front of my amused U.S. Representative boss, another amused congressman and the not-so-amused but intrigued senior staff of the House Ways and Means Committee at the 96th Congress. But everything changes with time and a different lens for viewing.
Had it not been for a friend from college who was happily clerking at the Supreme Court--who inadvertently shamed me one day in a conversation at the Tune Inn he has likely forgotten--I might never gone into private practice. So I left Capitol Hill and took a job in 1981 practicing law as one of DC's hundreds of "associates" in the branch office of a Midwestern law firm on 15th Street, N.W.
Everything--and I mean everything--changed for me. It was the same way new life sprung up inside me when the Duke undergraduate admissions people changed my life in 1971. Each day was different. I treated all the difficulties--and it was hard on me and mine--of being an associate as a challenge, and a even a privilege, and ever since then I have felt like it's an honor to do what lawyers do. In 1992, I started my own firm. I like the people I work with, the excitement of talented adversaries, a new project or case and the satisfaction of solving high-level problems for high-end clients, who I really like. And they even pay me for it. If you don't feel that way right away, give yourself time. If that fails, try another firm or another part of the profession. For many people, a different mentor, a new firm or a move to government or in-house counsel--even for a short while--can help you get your "sea legs" and make all the difference.
It's supposed to be fun. American law is extremely varied, elastic and constantly presenting new practice areas--especially in the larger cities. It has something for everyone. I am convinced of this. Please keep the faith and keep looking until you find it. Put another way, don't quit before the miracle occurs. It's there, and it's all inside you, in front of you. Simple--but still hard. It's a privilege and joy to do what lawyers do when they do it right.
And it really is fun.
So...any questions?
Posted by JD Hull at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)
Your Brochure: A Detail, A Tool--But Not a Marketing or Client Communications Strategy.
Nathan Burke and Tom Kane have fine, sane recent posts on this. So does Seth Godin, who started them off. In these 3 posts there's a message from real experts and probably all you will ever need to know on the subject. In short, do have a good one ready to go--even an interesting, provocative one--and send it when you are asked to send it. Not having a brochure is an omission you indulge at your peril. Just don't count on a brochure as effective marketing or real client communications. Personally, I don't put that much stock in them either--but we have them ready to go. They are always there. And I am a little concerned when another lawyer who wants me to help sell his or her firm tells me they don't have one but that they "can whip one one up pretty fast". How serious and skillful about marketing and selling could such lawyers really be?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2006
Listen Up...
Listening arts. I've mentioned before that I still need work but am improving in this area. It's a constant focus. And my co-workers seem to like me more whenever I write about it. Two of my favorite bloggers, and each a lawyer I would hire in a heartbeat to serve my firm's clients if needed--Chicago's Patrick Lamb and New York City's Arnie Herz--have been writing a lot about listening lately, here and here. Just follow all the links. Patrick and Arnie have collected some great sources in these posts--and they know what they're talking about. You'll never hear me "instruct" on this subject. I just listen.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #50 Is Out, Out There and It Should Wake Us All Up.
The Dark Goddess of Replevin Speaks did Blawg Review #50 this week, and DGR, a/k/a Seattle's Ruth Laura Edlund, did not disappoint. This may be H.L Mencken with a law degree reincarnated in Grunge City. She afflicts the comfortable and comforts, well, the possessed, dispossessed and disinherited: anonymous bloggers, women at BigLaw (are humans just better off as men?), a dusty museum piece in our Constitution called the Establishment Clause and even the tender teachings of one's own flawed human soul. Some new sites here for me, including Howard Friedman's Religion Clause, and Jews on First. The Dark Goddess reminded me that blawging can be more than the same self-congratulatory conversation (i.e., "wankfest", if you're English) between the same people from the same country in the same profession on the same subjects. It made me want more--from her, other bloggers, myself. I think DGR is royally alienated and artfully pissed off, and she would probably not like me at all--and I like her that way. So see Blawg Review #50. For fun, check her post 2 weeks ago "Washington State Barbies". I admit that "Bellevue Barbie" is my type.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
At the Canadian Bar Association, Client Service Merits Full-Time Emphasis.
I've noted that, on the subject of clients, the Oklahoma Bar Association's Jim Calloway "gets it". The Canadian bar people seems to get it, too. For months now I've included as a link to this site the Canadian Bar Association's CBA PracticeLink (scroll down bottom right). PracticeLink--which I've also discussed before because it actively advocates sane lawyer writing--even includes a special page for clients called Client Services. Lots of solid resources here. Just one of them is the
Client Care Handbook, originally entitled 30 Best Practices - Strategies for Law Firm Management. The CBA PracticeLink, including that 58-page booklet, is also translated into French. Clients need a few heroes, and here is one more.
J. Daniel Hull
Posted by JD Hull at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
Del Bianco: Net Neutrality - "The Next Broadband Battleground"
Shouldn't we all be able to to access all internet content without having to pay extra to attach adapting devices? And what about the IP rights of the providers? From DC-based telecom lawyer-consultant Mark Del Bianco, the article is here, reprinted from News.com--News of Change. "Network neutrality" has fast become a big tech issue worldwide, with a focus in the U.S. and Europe alike (see also WAC?'s post last week "The French Get Hissy About IP - Part 2"). Note also that Mark's article was published at News.com just 5 days ago and has sparked constant comment from the first hour it was on-line. Broadband giants like telephone companies are responding. Nerves have been hit in regulatory communities and legislatures. Stay tune.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)